Size / / /

If we had more moons,

months would fracture into innumerable shards

and broken Junes would rhyme with multiplication;

December's segments would twitch and sparkle

along the arched spine of winter.

Tides would become tentative

and wait for more gregarious skies

to swell like the noise of a crowded party

after the rumor spreads.

Anyone can fill a myriad of jiggers with mercury,

center another moon in each mirrored meniscus,

swirl or jiggle the silvery apparitions,

and watch them ripple and divide.

The largest planet, with a red heart that bleeds,

has a month of moons orbiting like butterflies

whose bright wings slowly open or close

and good-natured women who never know

when their next period is due, its time and tide

unpredictable as the next flickering moonrise.




F.J. Bergmann frequents Wisconsin and fibitz.com and intends to go down in history as the inventor of Time Pockets. She is the author of Constellation of the Dragonfly, Aqua Regia (Parallel Press, 2007), and Sauce Robert (Pavement Saw Press, 2003). Her work has appeared in Asimov's, Mythic Delirium, Niteblade, Weird Tales, and literary journals that should have known better. She is the poetry editor of Mobius: The Journal of Social Change. You can see more of her work in our archives.
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